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. 1979 Apr;138(1):133–138. doi: 10.1128/jb.138.1.133-138.1979

Alteration of the fatty acid composition of Escherichia coli by growth in the presence of normal alcohols.

K H Sullivan, G D Hegeman, E H Cordes
PMCID: PMC218249  PMID: 374359

Abstract

The addition of normal alcohols in the series n-butanol to n-octanol to cultures of Escherichia coli ML308 grown on defined or lipid-free medium (at 17, 27, and 37 degrees C) caused an alteration in the fatty acid composition of this organism: the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids increased. Changes in the relative quantities of individual fatty acid species elicited by increasing concentrations of these alcohols were as follows: (i) myristic acid remained constant: (ii) palmitic acid increased; and (iii) the combined amount of palmitoleic plus cis-methylene hexadecanoic acids changed in a way which was reflected inversely by changes in the amount of cis-vaccenic acid. Comparable changes were not observed when cells were grown in the presence of n-nonanol and n-decanol in the concentration range tested. The changes observed upon addition of normal alcohols (n-butanol to n-octanol) paralleled, in part, the alterations in fatty acid composition observed when growth temperature was increased.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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